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BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



Ballads of Peace and War 

and Other Verse 



By 
Horace Spencer Fiske 

Author of 

The Ballad of Manila Bay and Other Verse' 

"Provincial Types in American Fiction" 

"In Stratford and the Plays," Etc. 




BOSTON 

The Stratford Company 

1918 



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Copyright 1918 

The STRATFORD CO., Publishers 

Boston, Mass. 



The Alpine Press, Boston, Mass., TJ. S. A. 



DEC 19 1918 
©CI.A508648 



Introductory 3^ote 

A LL the verse in this collection has previously 
/ \ appeared in various forms in books and 
periodicals, the former including The. 
Athlete's Garland, The Praise of Lincoln, The 
Ballad of Manila Bay and Other Verse, 
Chicago in Picture and Poetry, and Poems on 
the University of Chicago; and the latter, the 
Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Evening Post, 
the Open Court, and Unity. 



CONTENTS 

The Man in the Cab 

A Place in the Sun 

The Statue of the Republic 

The Aviator 

The Liberator 

Black Hawk's Return 

"Vare, Vare, Redde Legiones!" 

The Discoverer 

Olympian Victors 

The Ballad of the Pigskin 

The Ballad of the Home Run 

The Home Express . 

A Midsummer Night 

Progress Lighting the Pathway of Commerce 

The Ballad of Manila Bay 

The Charge of San Juan .... 



Page 
I 

4 

6 

7 

9 

10 

12 

13 

15 

18 

22 

26 

29 

31 

34 

41 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



The Man in the Cab 

"Face to face with the inevi- 
tableness of the next moment." 

IN some huge station vibrant with an engine's 
steel-pent power. 
Where the night train waits in straining leash 
the striking of the hour, 
Sits a figure — still, expectant — high behind the 

hidden fires 
And the boiler's giant bigness that is bent to men's 
desires. 

For the man in the cab is the man that k^ows 
The throttle and signal and light ; 

And foremost his figure that steadily goes 
Down through the fog and the night. 

And when the train is glutted with the rushing of 

the crowd 
And the lantern swings its answer to the signal 

cried aloud. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



The eager coaches feel the thrill of the lever's urgent 

hand 
And the pulsing engine deeper throbs at the touch 

of a still command. 

Away through the blackness and storm-wind, 

away through the smoke and the snow, 
Like a moving constellation or a comet's sudden 

glow. 
The radiant flyer cuts the night with the flash of its 

shining speed — 
And only a man in oil-smeared blouse to guide it at 

its need. 

Low-crouched are the dangers of darkness for a 
sudden deadly spring. 

When the hearts in the coaches are gayest and life 
is a happy thing. 

When mothers are cherishing children and sweet- 
hearts are breathing delight — 

And only the man in the lonely cab that watches 
through the night. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



Through the bHnding sweep of the blizzard's cold 

the headlight casts its gleam, 
Yet all unknown lies the twisted rail or the bridge's 

broken beam; 
And all unknown waits the treacherous switch that 

unlocks the gate to death. 
Or the cowardly strength of the wreckers' bomb 

that shatters life at a breath. 

And the sleepless man in the swaying cab, with hand 
and eye alert. 

Is a symbol high of the leaders of life who win 
through a just desert; 

Who plan in the night, while the soldiers sleep, to- 
morrow's hard-won field. 

Who think for the thoughtless multitude and power 
for the helpless wield. 

For the man in the cab is the man that knows 
The throttle and signal and light ; 

And foremost he faces the fog and swift snows 
And the terrors that flash from night. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



A Place in the Sun 

(Recruits for the Ambulance Corps Saluting the Colors 
at Sunset) 

THOSE upward-looking faces of the youth, 
Aglow with sunset and with fervor for the flag, 
And serious with the thought of early sac- 
rifice — 
How steadfast shone the purpose in their eyes! 
So soon to carry dead and dying in that far off 

France, 
The torn and bloody bodies, to sweet Mercy's 

touch. 
While hiss and cry Death's terrors overhead. 
For these the dangerous ministrations 
That lift the world into a diviner air 
And consecrate the stronger to the weak. 
And so they prophesy a world to be, 
Wherein no helmet spike shall pierce the sun 
And blacken all the day; no looming autocrat 
To lift a mailed hand and hide the light 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



That shines for all — the poor and sick and weak, 
The stragglers and aspiring, the brave and generous, 
The lovers of their homes and soils and peoples. 
So for the race shall shine the face of freedom. 
The tender eyes of motherhood and children's joy. 
The confident look of men who are their own sure 

masters ; 
And all the world shall cheer the flag 
Whose colors float triumphant in the sun! 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



The Statue of the Republic 

(Formerly in the Court of Honor, World's Fair; now re- 
produced in bronze for Jackson Park, Chicago) 

ENGIRT with dreamful beauty thou didst stand. 
By day and night illumined, and to thy feet 
The gathered nations thronged with homage 
sweet — 
The world's hope shining in thine outstretched hand. 
The nations left thee there upon the strand 
To isolation splendid and complete; 
The flames rose round thee w^ith their withering 
heat 
And touched thy flashing beauty to a brand. 
Yet still unscathed thy spirit could not die; 
And o'er the land thy rising genius leads 
And summons all to freedom and the sky. 
Like thine own eagle that no respite needs 
But sunward mounts with ever clearer eye. 
Thou dost persuade to high and higher deeds. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



The Aviator 

"The mystery surrounding an aviator who for nearly two 
hours hung thousands of feet in the air above the city." 

LIKE some poised eagle, lover of the sky, 
_j That climbs alone to some far dizzying height 
And scans the sunset with unsated eye — 
He floats triumphant in the mellowing light. 
Behind him glows the lake's vast waveless purple. 
While, far below, the city's canons roar 
With noiseless tumult. 
A disembodied spirit, won from earth 
By sky allurements — motionless he hangs, 
As if to watch the world's diurnal round 
And drink the glory of the setting sun. 
Oblivious of the human. 
Unheard the signal gun and all the cries 
Of multitudinous voices. 

Yet suddenly, athwart the blackening clouds. 
He sees the call of twilight and red fires; 



8 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

And with majestic sweep descending wide, 
Like some home flying bird that craves its kind, 
He circles down the walls of gathering night 
To touch once more his eager mother earth 
And catch the sweet applause of half a city. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



The Liberator 

(St. Gaudens' Lincoln, Lincoln Park, Chicago) 

UPRISEN from his fasced chair of state. 
Above his riven people bending grave — 
His heart upon the sorrow of the slave — 
Stands simply strong the kindly man of fate. 
By war's deep bitterness and brothers* hate 
Untouched he stands, intent alone to save 
What God himself and humein justice gave — 
The right of men to freedom's fair estate. 
In homely strength he towers almost divine. 

His mighty shoulders bent with breaking care. 
His thought-worn face with sympathies grown 

fine; 
And as men gaze, their hearts as oft declare 

That this is he whom all their hearts enshrine — 
This man that saved a race from slow despair. 



10 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



Black Hawk's Return 

(Taft's Indian Monument, Eagle's Nest Bluff, Oregon, 
Illinois) 
There is no place like that where the bones of our fore- 
fathers lie. Here the Great Spirit will take pity on us. 

> — "Autobiography of Black Hawk" (1833) 

TO see once more the valley that we loved — 
The Sinnissippi shining in the sun. 
The leafy isles aslumber on its breast. 
And headlands lifting bold their guardian fronts; 
To catch again the corn leaves' tremulous sigh 
As wandering winds touch soft their w^aiting lines, 
And hear among the treetops near the sky 
The whispers of the night's mysterious life — 
This is our hoped for peace and this, in truth. 
Our cherished heaven. Buried the tomahawk. 
The scalping knife is rust, nor hisses more 
The bullet's treacherous song. 
No longer driven from our home lands sweet. 
We stay in peace where our great forbears rest — 
Watching the seasons in their mighty rounds, 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 11 

Drinking the sunsets from the stream and sky, 
And feeling oft the influence of that Power 
Whose life is breathed through all created things, 
Making our own immortal. 



12 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR _^ 

" Vare, Vare, Redde Legiones!'* 

** X^ IVE back the legions. Varus," cried Caesar in 
V ^ ^ X his sorrow, 

Rending his garments in a fruitless grief; 
For in a German pass lay all his legions slaugh- 
tered. 
And Varus dead, alone, by his own hand. 

And so to Europe cries a stricken world in mourn- 
ing. 

Lifting her yearning hands in vain appeal: 

"Give back the legions, Europe, by shell and shrap- 
nel shattered, 

That stretched in trench and field uncounted died." 

And all the legions of the mind and heart, now 

voiceless — 
Pity, and peace, and love of clear-eyed truth. 
Give back to us; and Art's great dreams for fair 

creation. 
And the world's high hope for one humanity. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 13 



The Discoverer 

"Weaver of Genoa and Admiral of the Ocean Sea" 
(Suggested by Lorado Taft's Columbus in Washington) 

UNFLINCHING son of fate, he stands alone, 
Uplifted by a far-eyed faith sublime 
That knows nor fear nor failure. 
Behind him lie the long, laborious years — 
His narrow youth and poverty's dull weight, 
His risks upon the sea and on the land. 
His convent refuge and his prayers at court. 
These lie behind — and ridicule's grimace. 
Hard skeptic scorn and churchly hate, and all 
The blows that greed and hidden envy struck. 
And on before? — 

What else but wind and wave, 
Terror and storm, a heartless sky, and death. 
Unchanged by changing compass still he sails, 
Borne onward by the unrelenting wind. 
While round him cries a mutinous unfaith. 
Week follows week and night the weary night. 



14 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

And yet no light from the imagined shore — 

The hopeful morn, the pitiless noon, the night. 

And yet no land nor light ; 

The cloud-made islands melt at his approach. 

And luring lights like tapers wink no more. 

Yet in the breeze he feels the breath of God, 

And knows, athwart the dark, a gleam will flash. 

To shine a star forever. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 15 



Olympian Victors 



1 STOOD on the slope of Kronos gray, above the 
Olympian plain, 
Where swift Alpheus still pursues his vanishing 
love in vain. 
And wondered deep at the picture rare revealed 

by the scholar's spade — 
A picture aglow on history's page with colors that 
never fade. 

For I saw below me the Stadium, alive with flying 
feet. 

And banked humanity gazing hard at the naked run- 
ners fleet; 

And every city's son at prayer that his own shall 
win the race, 

While a life's ambition flushes warm on every ath- 
lete's face. 



16 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

And off toward the curve of the Cladeus, in the 
sacred Altis walls, 

Rose the pillars of that temple vast whose god for- 
ever calls 

The victor to bend at his throne, and be crowned 
with Hercules* olive bough. 

And go forth with the fame of his glory bound about 
his leafy brow. 

And then, methought, amid the throng the gray 

Herodotus read. 
As young Thucydides followed rapt his history's 

golden thread; 
And soft in the temple's shadow the great-browed 

Plato walked. 
While girt with a wondering multitude the sovereign 

Socrates talked. 

Then slow past my eye through the Altis a stately 

procession moved. 
With the psalm of the victor leading on the athletes 

that stood approved — 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 17 

Up the steps of the temple and on to the feet of 

Zeus, 
Where the purpled judges placed the crowns Athena 

alone can produce. 

And up from the free-born races, the lovers of 

beauty and strength, 
From the trembling western river through the Altis* 

sacred length, 
A tide of resounding plaudits swelled full to old 

Kronos* feet 
And played in the porch of Echo with a murmur 

long and sweet. 



18 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



The Ballad of the Pigskin 

WHEN the crowd has cheered the hostile 
teams and the band has played its best. 
And roaring rooters warmed the lungs 
within the coldest breast; 
When hat and cane and flag and feet have marked 

each rolling shout, 
And the coin has told its little tale and the whistle 

sounded out — 
Then the untried, slippery pigskin lies at rest upon 

the ground. 
And silence wraps the people with expectancy pro- 
found. 

Oh, the kick-off and the tackle and the sudden-footed punt. 
And the stillness of the players on a down ; 

And the plunging and the lunging in the swaying battle's 
brunt. 
And the megaphonic cries of town and gown! 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 19 

Now the ball comes floating downward toward the 
fullback's opening arms, 

And he hugs it for a zigzag shoot through a host of 
threatening harms; 

But the clutches of the tackle snap him hard upon 
the earth, 

And the fumbled ball goes bobbing like a thing of 
mock and mirth; 

Till the center-rush bends motionless above the rest- 
ing sphere, 

And the fronting lines stand statuesque in hidden 
hope and fear. 

Then the mighty mingled scrimmage works its arms 

and legs and feet. 
Heaping heads and twisted bodies in a chaos most 

complete; 
But ten yards is a journey for a head that isn't stone. 
And harder than a wooden wall is a wall of human 

bone; 



20 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

So the bleachers Hft their megaphones to breathe a 

bracing cheer. 
And the rooters' "Hold *em,** "Hold "em," smites 

the player's anxious ear. 

Then out from the mass of strugglers, like a comet 
from its course, 

Shoots a runner on a tangent, with a catapultic force; 

And the field spreads fair before him as the path to 
paradise. 

And his soul leaps up to win it at the dearest sacri- 
fice; 

For he hears the yelling people and a mighty stride 
behind. 

And he hopes to live forever in the football heart 
enshrined. 

But his striding hot pursuer on the five-yard jerks 

him down. 
And his hope burns low within him as he clutches 

for renown; 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 21 

Yet he twists and squirms and struggles 'mid the 

trumpets' blare and blast, 
And the touchdown with his nerveless hands he 

reaches at the last; 
And his head whirls like a pin-wheel and his eyes, 

bewildered, close. 
As the chorus of the people lifts his name above his 

foes. 

Oh, the touchdown and the goal-kick and the sudden-footed 
punt. 
And the stillness of the players on a down; 
And the plunging and the lunging in the swaying battle's 
brunt. 
And the megaphonic cries of town and gown / 



22 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



The Ballad of the Home Run 

In vivid Ma^ and rustling June 
When breeze's breath is like a tune. 
Oh, where can life be free ? 

Where swings the bat. 

Where shoots the ball. 

Where rings the umpire's sudden call. 

And curve and catch must settle all — 
Upon the diamond. 

THE sunlight pours a golden flood across the 
grassy field, 
As up against a cloudless sky the grandstand 
throws its shield; 
The umpire tosses out the ball, the batter takes 

his stand; 
The catcher snugly fits his mask, the pitcher twirls 

his hand. 
And the new white sphere goes twisting like a bullet 

from a gun, 
And the crowds upon the bleachers settle down to 
see the fun. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 23 

Three times the batter hits the air in lieu of the whirl- 
ing ball, 

And takes his seat with a heavy look at the umpire's 
final call; 

The second pounds a liner straight, that beats him 
to the base; 

The third sends up a Hier that seems made for climb- 
ing space — 

Yet the center softly takes it in without the least dis- 
tress. 

And the hopeful "ins" have a whitewashed stone 
on the road to hard success. 



Then the "outs" use all their brain power to find the 
little curve, 

And they learn that this is a little thing that can't 
be found by nerve ; 

For the sullen ball and the angry bat don't seem in- 
clined to meet. 

And never an eager batter has a chance to use his 
feet. 



24 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

So the sides keep swinging back and forth, with now 

and then a hit, 
But without a single fought-for score to cither's 

benefit. 

Then the ninth — it opens hotly with a triple-bag- 
ger crack, 

And the runner makes the bases like a racer round 
the track; 

Till the catcher's fumble brings him in amid the 
roaring cheers. 

And the hopes of half the people change to soul- 
depressing fears; 

For the aliens have a tally safe and the home team 
have an 0, 

And only half an inning's left to beat the foreign 
foe. 

Now two are out; the third leads off with a dainty 

little "bunt," 
And the hardest hitter plants his feet to meet the 

battle's brunt. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 25 

Lo, through the sky and over the fence the ball goes 
climbing fast, 

While the pair of runners touch the plate amid the 
blare and blast; 

And the people, standing, lift his praise on the wave 
of a mighty cheer, 

As the jubilant team on their shoulders bear the win- 
ner of the year! 



26 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



The Home Express 



WHEN the city's rush is over, and the monthly 
ticket shown. 
And the platform's crowd has scattered 
like the leaves in autumn blown, 
Then the engine feels the throttle, as the racer feels 

the whip. 
And sends its drivers whirling for its little home- 
ward trip. 

Oh, the home train, and its quioer, and its shoot along the 
lake. 

And its gladness that the da^ is nearly done; 
And the tumbling of the wave crests as the}) flash and 
swiftly break 

In the last, low, level shining of the sun ! 

The clean-cut man of business eyes his fresh-bought 
paper close. 

Culling out the world's wide doings from the pad- 
ded news verbose; 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 27 

And the bargain hunter, sated, sits ensconced amid 

her gains, 
Complacent o'er the patent fact of her superior 

brains. 

The trainman punches tickets with his swift and easy 

Eur, 
Like the man that knows his business of getting 

every fare; 
And he calls the Hyde Park station in the strong 

familiar ring 
As he inward thrusts his body through the car door's 

sudden swing. 

Meanwhile the conversation of the women from the 

clubs 
Increases with the train speed and the whirling of the 

hubs ; 
And the latest sociology or the very freest verse, 
Or city art and garbage their gossip intersperse. 

And the reader of the human, as he notes their faces 
fair, 



28 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

Feels deep their sense of beauty and their love of 

smokeless air; 
And his inner eye sees visions of immortal Art's 

wide sway 
And clear-eyed Science gazing on a fairer, sweeter 

day. 

So the city's strong-faced thousands spin ad own 

the steel-set bed, 
With the two red signals rearward and the yellow 

on ahead; 
Till the engine feels the throttle 'neath the station's 

glittering light. 
And gladdens waiting home-hearts at the gathering 

of the night. 

Oh, the home train, and its quiver, and its shoot along the 
lake. 

And its gladness that the da^ is fairly done; 
And the tumbling of the wave crests as they flash and 
swijtl^ break. 

In the twilight and the moonlight just begun ! 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 29 

A Midsummer Night 

(From the Chicago Municipal Pier) 

FROM that high tower I looked 
And lo! to eastward, 

From out the mysteries of night and sleep- 
ing waters, 
There rose a globe of misty, mellow gold 
'Tween clouds of banded blackness — 
And the great moon's face benignly smiled 
Its vast approval. 

And far below, the myriad democracy 
Went straying aimlessly, but joyful 
In the touch of breeze upon the forehead 
And the thought of refuge from the burning city 

streets. 
The golden eagles with uplifted wings 
Poised eagerly upon their shining worlds. 
And never Roman eagles rose above 
So strong and free and keen a people. 



30 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

Across the clouded waters shot suddenly 
The red effulgence of the whirling light, 
And then the white poured out its silver fountain; 
While here and there great duplicated golden glows 
Of monstrous steamers moved conqueringly 
Athwart the yielding blackness. 
Shoreward the luminous lines of curving lights 
Marked out the city, 

Where thousands swelter in the chaining confines 
Of their narrow lives, 
And I exulted in this thrust of coolness. 
This promontory of human joy and comfort 
That the city's love hath stretched for all her chil- 
dren. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 31 



Progress Lighting the Pathway of Commerce 

(Allegorical Figure on the Montgomery Ward Tower, 
Chicago) 

ON the wings of the Hght or the darkness. 
Borne beautifully there aloft. 
With thy flaming torch upreaching 
And thy winged wand waved oft. 
Thou leadest the eyes of Commerce 

Like a spirit of sun and air. 
And seemest afar like a golden star 
To the men who know and dare. 

Like Mercury touching a hilltop, 

Thou poisest upon the world — 
Thy serpent wand a magical power. 

And thy torch-flame never furled; 
Thou lookest outward and upward. 

With a clear prophetic gaze. 
And weary eyes to thy radiant skies 

A myriad workers raise. 



32 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

For first in the dawn's gray flashing 

From out the silvery lake, 
Thou lightest thy torch at the day spring 

To lead for the people's sake; 
And last in the sunset's reddening, 

Through the ruddy city smoke, 
Thou gleamest on high in the mellow sky 

Like a being that men invoke. 

And through the night's thick darkness. 

When the toilers sleep and dream, 
And only the sentinel w^alks his beat 

Where rushed the human stream. 
Thy glowing figure floats above 

In the blackness vast and deep, 
And watches alone till the night be o'erthrown 

By the sun in his upward sweep. 

Then a song to our radiant woman 
Who leads through the chartless sk^. 

With her quenchless torch and her winged wand 
And her hopes that never die ; 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 33 

And a song for the mighty cit^ 

That works 'neatb her guidance high. 

With its pulsing heart and its dauntless will 
And its soul's aspiring cry. 



34 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



The Ballad of Manila Bay 

"You must capture vessels or destroy them." 

— President McKinley to Commodore Dewey. 

And men b^ a million hearth fires shall tell of Manila 
Bay — 

How Dewe^ swept past the forts at night. 
And struck the dons in the flushing light, 

And for freedom won the da^. 

IN HONGKONG harbor, far from home, beyond 
the surging sea. 
The "acting admiral" held his ships that panted 
to be free. 
And the jackies grumbled and fumed and swore 

at the government's slow delay. 
When the enemy lay so very near in the fair Manila 

Bay; 
Till the President spoke beneath the waves — e'en 

half the world around — 
And the commodore caught with eager ear the deep 
electric sound. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 35 

Then he sailed away through the China Sea for the 
Island of Luzon, 

And he hunted hard in Subig Bay for the nose of a 
Spanish don; 

And at midnight black his ships held off from their 
voyage to the South, 

For before them lay the battery lights and Manila's 
yawning mouth — 

The battery guns that shoot to death and the har- 
bor's sunken mines. 

The swift torpedo's deadly rush and the gunboats* 
bristling lines. 

But he darkened his ships and steamed ahead, past 

the grim Corregidor, 
Till the showering sparks sent a signal high to the 

forts along the shore; 
Yet on he went — like the naarch of Fate — while 

Death kept his watch below — 
And the sailors* souls were stretched and taut for a 

sight of their hidden foe. 



36 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

The dawn flashed up from out the black, and 

through the early Hght 
Behind the arsenal rose the hills — the background 

of the fight; 
And the commodore thought of old Vermont — 

the green hills of his home, 
And the little town of his boyhood hopes, ere his 

feet began to roam; 
And the battery smoke, to memory's eye, rose slow 

as morning mist 
That whitened the old home valley, by the sunlight 

yet unkissed. 

But right before growled the Spanish ships, and the 
loud Cavite guns. 

And his soul went out in memory of the nation's 
slaughtered sons. 

And deep in the breasts of the sailors, at sound of 
the forts of Spain, 

Like an answering echo throbbed the cry: "Re- 
member, remember the Maine 1" 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 37 

Till a mighty, ringing cheer arose, repeated from 

ship to ship, 
And the hearts of the gunners leaped in joy to let 

the war-dogs slip. 

But though the Spaniards shot and shelled writh 

boom and rifle crack. 
And the Yankee gunners held their fire and waited 

on the rack ; 
From the flagship's silent course nor turret nor spon- 

son spouted flame. 
And "save your powder for closer range" was the 

only word that came — 
When off the Baltimore's steady prow a black mud 

geyser sprang, 
And "the mines!" "the mines!" in a general cry 

through the startled ship -crews rang. 

Yet still straight on the commodore moved for the 

Spanish admiral's ship. 
And every sailor knew right well that the Spanish 

flag would dip. 



38 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

Suddenly burst a thunderous roar from the Olym- 

pia's port-side guns; 
The smoke-fog rose — they roared again — they 

remembered the nation's sons. 
Through the Spanish flagship tore the shells along 

the water line, 
And everywhere the flames shot out their flaring, 

fatal sign. 

In fiery procession followed fast five ships of the 
Yankee line. 

As the commodore swung his starboard guns for a 
punishment more condign. 

Five times past the flaming fleet and the belching 
battery smoke — 

And every time he closer swept, and hit with a heav- 
ier stroke. 

And when from the thickening powder-smoke he 
rested in the sun, 

To view his loss and count his dead — he found not 
even one! 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 39 

But the Spanish dons, as he cleared the smoke, 

thought a coward ran away. 
And split their throats in a jubilant cheer that echoed 

down the bay. 
Yet the commodore only smiled and said: "We 

haven't begun to fight;" 
And in two short hours the Spaniards learned that 

the commodore w^as right — 
For their ships went down, or their ships burned up 

like bonfires on the bay; 
And the batteries shut their blackened throats, and 

the admiral ran away. 

And over the crumbling Spanish forts and the is- 
land by the sea, 

Instead of the Spaniards* jaundiced flag the Stars 
and Stripes flew free — 

The Stars and Stripes that float on high for liberty- 
loving men — 

Stripes for their tyrant-wrongers, and stars for their 
darkened ken. 



40 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 



And the world rejoiced with a sudden joy for the 

swift and awful blow 
That fell like a righteous thunderbolt on the Cuban's 

ruthless foe. 

And men ftp a million hearth-fires shall tell of Manila 
Bay,— 

HoVD Dewe^ swept past the forts at night. 
And struck the dons in the flushing light. 

And for freedom won the da^. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 41 



The Charge of San Juan 

"If you don't wish to go forward, let my men pass." 

— Colonel Roosevelt. 

AT SAN JUAN river down the trail, in bush or 
choking grass, 
Lay regiments of soldiers in a hot, dis- 
ordered mass. 
To the left the hills that hide the sea; to the right 

the hills arise; 
And straight in front frown hard and high the hills 

of sacrifice — 
The hills that poured from yellow pits a steady fire 

of death. 
And turned the soldier's waiting to a struggling gasp 
for breath. 

There in the golden sunlight waved a mile of forest 
green. 

And blue and red on the hill-tops slept the bunga- 
lows serene; 



42 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

While off toward Santiago ran the barracks' gleam- 
ing white, 

And the merciful flags of the Red Cross fluttered 
soft to the soldier's sight. 

But up above the rifle-pits, clear-cut against the sky. 

Like an oriental temple, stood the house where men 
must die. 

An hour they lay on their rifles hot, and prayed for 
the word "advance," 

For the sun was worse than an enemy and the peril 
of mischance; 

The twisting shrapnel burst about in a shrieking, 
pitiless dirge, 

And the hissing Mausers cut the grass as a steel 
prow cuts the surge; 

And out from mysterious tree-tops close, behind in- 
visible smoke, 

The guerrilla's waspish bullet in a deadly humming 
spoke. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 43 

Then men in line sprang forward — hit, and sank 
again with a groan, 

Or clinging to shoulder, torn and red, rolled over 
without a moan; 

And back of the lines the stewards drew the wound- 
ed to the streams 

And laid them in rows on the muddy banks, with 
their feet where the w^ater gleams; 

And up and down the mounted aides went splash- 
ing through the fords. 

Till they fell from their horses, limip and dead, as 
if cut by unseen swords. 

Suddenly broke from the wooded line, behind the 

Ninth's array, 
A colonel high on horseback, riding rough to save 

the day. 
His wide sombrero flew a flag of twisted polka-dot. 
And straight behind, it floated blue — a guidon for 

a shot. 



44 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

And he swung his hat as he shouted out to the men 

amid the grass: 
"If you fellows won't go forward now, just let my 

own men pass!" 

But those black soldiers, prostrate, sprang like 

hounds upon a hunt, 
And charged with the Rough Riders for the thickest 

battle-brunt. 
And together they went forward — black and 

brown and army blue — 
They, the scattered and impeded — they, the strong 

and desperate few — 
Up the steep and sunny hillside, through the grasses 

sharp and tall. 
Creeping on with slipping footsteps, smitten low 

with Spanish ball. 

Still the blue line mounted surely, moving like a ris- 
ing tide, 

Though the hill-crest crackled fiercely with the 
flame of Spanish pride. 



BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 45 

Toward the top the fragments gathered for a sud- 
den burst of speed, 

And the Spaniards saw before them fighters that 
could fight indeed; 

For they rose against the sky-Hne — Spaniards 
poising swift for flight — 

Poured one final volley hotly, and dashed down- 
ward out of sight. 

And there on the frowning ranch-house roof, high- 
flung 'gainst the tropic sky. 

Humanity's hope they lifted up with a far-heard 
jubilant cry; 

And among the enemy's cartridges, in the soft earth 
of the pits. 

They fixed the flags of the cavalry that fights but 
never submits; 

While over the valley toward the sea, ashine in the 
southern sun. 

They saw the walls of the city that would soon be 
fully won. 



46 BALLADS OF PEACE AND WAR 

And of Roosevelt's Rough Riders the fame grows 

never old — 
For the^ climbed the hills of San Juan steep 
And won the tops with a sudden sweep 

In the love of freedom bold. 



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